This easy peach galette has just a few simple ingredients made with sweet & juicy summer peaches and a homemade flaky pie crust. It’s a perfect dessert for two but can easily feed four.
I’m fitting in one last summer dessert recipe before the fall season begins. Today, I’ve used up my last two summer peaches and a small pie crust I had left over in the freezer to make a scrumptious and easy peach galette.
I can’t say I’m sad to see summer go. I’m ready. It’s been so incredibly hot here in south Florida. The heat and humidity has wreaked the worst havoc on my hair and I can’t take a daily walk without coming home sunburned and drenched in sweat. Ovah it!
What I am not glad to see go is summer stone fruit. Specifically, ripe summer peaches. The kind you bite into and it bursts with juicy sweet peachy goodness.
Stone fruit is basically a fruit with a hard seed in it. Fruits like peaches, nectarines, mangos, cherries etc.
You may want to also try this cherry galette.
Or this peach blueberry crisp.
I kinda hate covid (among other reasons) for making me feel guilty about smelling produce for ripeness. It’s hard to smell through a mask. But I do anyway. Sorry but there is no other definitive test for peach ripeness.
It you can’t smell that signature peachy aroma, put it down and walk away. It’s not ripe.
Oh, but when you find those perfect sweet and ripe summer peaches, especially Georgia peaches, that’s when you have to make a simple peach galette for dessert.
The one thing I began doing in quarantine was making small batch recipes and desserts for two. It has stuck with me. It’s just Terry and myself and I hate waste. Especially in these times.
What is a Galette?
A galette is what I like to call a lazy person’s pie. It’s a French pastry which is either filled with a sweet or savory filling.
It’s not a stressful as those perfect fancy schmancy pie crusts you see on Instagram. Yet there is something so beautifully rustic and organic about a classic galette when it’s filled and folded over.
It’s a half dressed free form pie and I’m here for it.
Tips for Making a flaky homemade galette crust:
- Use cold ingredients for your homemade crust and handle the crust with your hands as least as possible. You could also use a pre-made refrigerated crust to make your life even easier. But a homemade crust comes together quickly and is simple to make.
- You’ll want to use ice cold water and use the least amount of water possible. The more water you add to the flour, the more the gluten bands will develop and make for a tougher less flaky crust. Stop adding water when the mixture comes together.
- Using vodka or vinegar will give you a flakier pie crust. Vinegar (or vodka) help tenderized flour and inhibit gluten development. Don’t skip this step. I prefer vodka over vinegar because it is odorless.
- Use a good qualify butter with high fat content. I wrote about using high fat content butter and the reasoning behind it in my croissant recipe.
- Roll pastry out to 1/8″ thickness. Too thick and it will may bake unevenly or won’t bake up flaky. Too thin and it may fall apart with cracks and moisture.
- Use an egg wash to get a golden brown pastry crust. I usually sprinkle a bit of course sugar or brown sugar on top to give the pastry a bit of extra caramely goodness as it bakes.
- Bake your galette on a middle oven rack and start out at a higher temperature for the first 10 minutes to help the crust rise. Then reduce the temperature and finish baking until golden brown.
- Don’t open the oven to check on it during the first 15 minutes because you don’t want any heat to escape while you’re trying to get the pastry to do a quick rise from the steam released off the butter’s moisture.
Peach Galette Filling Tips:
- Peel and thinly slice your peaches evenly for a quicker and uniform baking time. I prefer my peaches peeled but it’s a personal preference.
- Let the peaches macerate in their juices in the fridge for about 15 minutes. When filling your galette strain the peach filling juices. You don’t want your mixture soupy as this can moisten your pastry crust and cause the bottom to be unevenly baked and golden brown on the bottom. The peaches will give off plenty of juices as they break down while baking.
- Add flour or corn starch to your filling to thicken it. Some prefer potato starch over flour or corn starch but I personally have never tried it. I’ve gotten great results from either.
Tips for filling & folding your galette:
- Pile the filling in the center and leave about a 1 inch border between the filling and edge or just enough so that you can comfortably fold the edges around the filling.
- Begin by brining up a small section of an edge of the pastry and continue folding over making sure to overlap the previous fold until you reach the full circumference. That’s about as rustic as rustic gets folks.
- Use parchment paper. Roll pastry out to 1/8 of an inch on a well floured piece of parchment paper for easy transfer. I didn’t do that today because I wanted to photograph on my naked baking sheet. Parchment paper makes it much easier to transfer in and out of baking sheet.
I hope you enjoy this sweet summer peach galette. I’m looking forward to making a savory galette for an upcoming fall recipe.
Easy Peach Galette: For Two
Ingredients
- GALETTE CRUST: (Yields 2 small galette crusts)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 8 Tablespoons cold cubed salted butter
- 1 Tablespoon ice cold vodka (or vinegar)
- 4-5 Tablespoons ice water (Add a little at a time)
- Egg wash (one egg yolk plus 1 Tablespoon milk or water whisked together.)
- Brown or course white sugar for dusting top of pastry
- PEACH FILLING:
- 2 large ripe peaches. Peeled, remove pit, and slice thin and evenly.
- 3 Tablespoon white sugar
- 1/2 Tablespoon corn starch (can sub flour or potato starch)
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
- Fresh mint for garnish
- Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream for serving
Instructions
- In a small bowl add flour.
- Cube butter and place in flour.
- Use a pastry cutter or fork and cut in the butter until you have desired crumbly consistency throughout.
- Add vodka (or vinegar) and 2 Tablespoons of ice water to begin.
- Use the fork to gently bring the mixture together into a shaggy ball.
- Continue to add 1 Tablespoon cold water until you can form a shaggy ball. Stop adding water when can from into a shaggy ball
- Turn crust mixture out onto a counter and shape into 2 small discs.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. You can freeze the other for up to 3 months and use later.
- In a medium sized bowl add peeled thinly sliced peaches, sugar, corn starch, cinnamon, vanilla, and lemon juice. Mix well with a spoon and place in refrigerator for 15 minutes to macerate.
- Preheat oven to 400° F.
- Remove chilled pastry dough and roll out to an 8″ diameter on generously floured parchment paper.
- Transfer to a baking sheet.
- With a slotted spoon drain off some of the liquid and pile peaches in the center of the pastry leaving a 1″ space between the peaches and edges.
- Gently fold over small sections of the edges making sure to overlap the previous fold until you reach the full circumference.
- Brush with egg wash.
- Top with brown sugar or course white sugar
- Place on middle rack of oven and bake for 10 minutes. Do not open oven during this time.
- After 10 minutes reduce temperature to 375° F and continue baking until crust is golden brown and juices are starting to bubble over.
- Cool on wire rack.
- Garnish with fresh mint leaves.
- Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.
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